Anon FBI snitch Sabu attacked Aussie govt sites

Dept of Finance-managed websites hit.

Australian websites were targeted amongst a series of high-profile attacks orchestrated by Anonymous hacktivist turned informant for the US FBI, Hector Xavier Monsegur (Sabu), and imprisoned hacker Jeremy Hammond, according to leaked trial evidence.

Monsegur and Hammond targeted websites across 30 countries in 2012. The names of the affected countries - which have now been revealed to include the US, UK and Australia - were previously sealed under a court order.

The 30 countries targeted were today outed in XMPP/Jabber chat logs obtained and published by the Daily Dot.

At the time of the attacks, Monsegur had already agreed to become an FBI informant, and was under constant monitoring by the bureau's agents.

Both sites fall under the auspices of the Department of Finance. iTnews has contacted the department for comment.

It is unclear whether Monsegur and Hammond managed to break into the Australian government sites.

In some cases with overseas websites, hackers goaded by Monsegur to do as much damage as possible stole data that was later uploaded to a server under the control of the FBI, according to the Daily Dot.

The hacktivist pair also hit several other countries allied to the US, including Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and Argentina.

Last year, Hammond received a ten-year sentence for his role in the hacking of United States defence contractor Stratfor.

He was convicted largely thanks to the evidence collected with Monsegur's assistance, who in May this year walked out of court a free man thanks to his collaboration with the authorities.

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